


The Long Way Home

by madansemacabre



Category: One Piece
Genre: Gen, This is super spoiler heavy of the Ace novels
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-03
Updated: 2021-02-03
Packaged: 2021-03-14 08:14:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,662
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29167896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/madansemacabre/pseuds/madansemacabre
Summary: Surprised with a sudden anniversary party of his one year anniversary of joining the Whitebeard Pirates - Ace reflects on his relationships he made on the ship and the family he's found along the way.Note: Makes a lot of references to the events/characters only found in the Ace novels!
Comments: 5
Kudos: 18





	The Long Way Home

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! Just a quick introspective piece about Ace! (for all of you stunned that I didn't write something explicit for once, I know!)
> 
> For those of you who haven't read the Ace novels and still want to give this fic a shot, thank you! The One Piece wiki should be able to help you along!

_“Hey Ace, can you come over here for a sec?”_

Ace blinked, turning around to look at Thatch who was in the doorway of his division’s cabin. But he was also grinning like a cat that got a canary.

_What was up with that?_

“Uh…I guess?” answered Ace as he stood up from where he was rummaging through his things towards the door.

Thatch snickered as he left the entrance way and quickly moved to the side. Lifting a brow, Ace followed him outside only to be bombarded with loud noise makers, confetti and loud cheers.

“HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, ACE!!”

Ace slowly blinked, confused at what was going on.

“Uh…Anniversary _of_ _what?”_

“Of officially getting your ass kicked 100 times by Pops-yoi!” answered Marco, with a huge grin on his face.

_“You’re all dicks”_ mumbled Ace, huffing as he crossed his arms. Blowing air softy to get the confetti out of his mouth.

Izo chuckled, putting an arm around Ace and pulling him into a side hug.

“ _We’re teasing._ We’re celebrating you finally deciding to join our crew. It just happens that you needed to get your ass kicked 100 times to do so” explained Izo, with a grin.

“C’mon! We made a huge feast for you and everyone else who joined us from your crew! Tonight, we’re celebrating!” announced Thatch as he grabbed Ace’s wrist, pulling him towards the main deck. Ace blinked, surprised to see how many people had turned up for this.

It looked like nearly the entire crew had stopped what they were doing to gather around a massive buffet in the middle of the main deck. And right in the middle were the crewmembers that had remained with Ace from his time as Captain of the Spade pirates.

Ace grinned – _he wasn’t someone to say no to a party!_

Soon enough the party took off.

With lots of food, alcohol, songs and good times, Ace couldn’t help but feel a little overwhelmed by it all. Oddly enough, he wasn’t used to being the center of attention for good reasons. Usually when he was the center of attention it was because he had somehow fucked up something…Or started a fight…Or broke a rule. So all of this rather took him off guard to say the least and he wasn’t sure quite how to handle it.

“Remember when you tried to behead Pops with an axe? And he hit you so hard that you not only went flying, but bounced into the railing and then into the water?”

_“Ohh I remember”_

_Thank god Wallace was around to fish him out of the water!_

“How about the time you tried to stab him in his sleep and he still managed to kick your ass?”

_That was humiliating! He snored through the whole thing!_

“I remember”

“Or how about the time-“

“Alright guys, let Ace go-yoi, let him survive this night with a bit of his pride intact, shall we?” said Marco as he walked up to the group, chuckling. “I’m pretty sure Ace remembers all one hundred of his attempts.”

The crewmembers that had gathered about Ace to give him a good ribbing soon dispersed with Marco’s words, giving Marco the space to sit down besides Ace.

“They’re just teasing.” Assured Marco, not wanting Ace to feel bad.

Ace sighed, a weak smile on his face.

_His pride wasn’t hurt or anything. Okay, maybe a little. But it was mostly the idea of what he tried to do that ate him up._

“I Know, I know. I’m not mad or anything. It’s more that I’m kinda still kicking myself for trying to kill Pops so many times” admitted Ace “I don’t think I could have forgiven myself now had I done it”

_It would have destroyed so many lives and Ace never wants to be responsible for ending the life of such a great man like Pops._

Marco chuckled softly, putting his arm around Ace and pulling him into a tight side hug.

“But you didn’t, and let’s be honest, Ace – _you couldn’t-yoi_!” teased Marco, ruffling Ace’s hair with a laugh “Besides, Pops thought it was amusing and he’s over it. And that’s what matters”

Ace smiled, looking forward at the man himself, Edward Newgate, sitting on his massive throne in the middle of the main deck, laughing and drinking. Their eyes met and Pops smiled proudly at him, nodding as he lifted his mug. Ace grinned, raising his mug to the man who meant everything to him.

“He loves you, Ace _. We love you-yoi!”_ exclaimed Marco, giving Ace’s hair a loud, wet smooch and breaking the kiss with a loud smack of his lips.

“ _Oh dude-!”_ laughed Ace, shoving Marco slightly with a laugh “Get out of here, you drunk!”

Marco laughed, getting up.

“No pouting at your party! I mean it! We’re celebrating all of you joining our family and you only get one of these! So enjoy it! Now I gotta go make sure nobody burns the ship down-yoi!”

Marco then went to rejoin the party as he went to speak to previous members of the Spade Pirates. Ace couldn’t help but smile as he watched how effortlessly his crew had intergraded with the Whitebeards. Not all of them were here considering many had migrated to affiliate crews of Whitebeards. But the ones he could see, seemed happy.

Mihal seemed right at home, having taught everyone on the Moby Dick who didn’t know how to read, to read.

Skull was chatting with Izo and Fossa, his intel gathering had been priceless for the Whitebeards.

Everyone else looked right at home with the Whitebeards and it honestly gave him such relief.

Ace then paused, noticing one of his previous crewmates was missing. Standing up, he decided to go find him.

Ace opened the door to the ship’s galley, watching the Fourth division scurrying around the kitchen. They were preparing and gathering more food and drinks for the party going on outside. Ace couldn’t help but think of the time he was under the Fourth Division’s care – _well, forced to be_. He was sure that Thatch didn’t appreciate him at all at first.

“Meow!”

Ace blinked and smiled brightly as he spotted Kotatsu running up to him, loudly purring as he rubbed himself on Ace’s legs

This lynx was more of a big housecat than anything.

“I was wondering where you were hiding” mumbled Ace as he leaned down to scratch behind Kotatsu’s ear.

“Hey! Why aren’t you out with your party?”

Ace smiled as Thatch walked up to him carrying two large trays of food. It was honestly kinda comical how large the platters were in the chef’s hands. But they sure had a lot of mouths to feed on the ship.

“Came to see if you needed a hand?” offered Ace as he held out his hands, offering to take one from Thatch

“Well, I won’t say no to that! But c’mon! I can’t see the food we already put out there lasting much longer!”

Once they put the food down in the middle of the feast, Thatch and Ace started to make their way back to the galley. But out of nowhere, Thatch merely turned around, crossing his arms. Ace had but seconds to stop before he crashed into him. Kotatsu, who had been following Ace closely, wasn’t so lucky, collapsing on the ground after he banged into Ace’s legs with a weak ‘meow’.

“The party is that way” pointed out Thatch, with a nod of his chin.

“I know, I know. But, it just felt kinda weird a celebration party of me and my crew joining the Whitebeards without you being there…considering how you took care of me and stuff” admitted Ace, scratching his cheek, a little embarrassed.

A part of him felt a huge debt towards his friend who took such great care of him while he was still working through his shit _. Granted, Ace wasn’t the nicest at all the time_ , and had been rather stubborn. But he still owed the guy a lot.

“Aww shucks!” replied Thatch; grinning from ear to ear as he gave Ace a hardy slap on the back “You’re such a dummy, Ace! Of course I took care of you; otherwise you would have burnt down the whole ship with your stupidness!”

Ace laughed, rubbing the back of his neck.

“I wasn’t _that_ bad”

_He was that bad._

“You sure were, you angsty little boy. But I’m glad you really seem more comfortable and happy now. Not so on edge” remarked Thatch, catching Ace off guard.

_What did he mean by that?_

“Huh? You think so?”

“Sure do! Now I gotta get back in the kitchen. But save a drink for me to share with you later, okay?”

Ace nodded, bright smile on his face.

“Absolutely!”

“I can’t say I was expecting them to throw us an anniversary party”

It had been a few hours since Ace had spoken with Thatch. After that Little Oars had stopped to talk to him, Izo, Vista, Haruta and many others. Everyone regaled him with stories, memories and best times they had with Ace. Once again, Ace found himself to not really knowing how to deal with the emotions running through him at the moment.

_He couldn’t remember a time when so many people told him they liked him, much less that they were glad to have met him._

“Yeah me neither. I was told that it’s a onetime thing though. Just for the first year, otherwise they’d be partying all the time” explained Ace as Deuce, his former first mate, walked up to him.

Ace was sitting against the very railing he had actually crashed through that one time Pops had sent him flying. He needed a moment of calm away from it all to really swallow his feelings down a bit, while watching everyone partying. But it seems that he had wound up losing track of time. Kotatsu was curled up against him, sleeping softly as the party was starting to wind down. Deuce sat down besides Ace, offering him a mug of grog, which Ace happily took.

“To you”

“ _To us_ ” corrected Ace as they toasted their mugs to each other, taking a sip afterwards.

“I can’t believe it’s already been a year of us officially joining the crew. Granted, if we want to be accurate, we’re actually more like into a year and nearly a half of being on the boat. _Someone took a while to come around”_

“ _Shut up_ ” replied Ace, snorting “I feel so dumb looking back at how long and blind I was”

“You were angry at the world. Saw Pops as a living representation of your father and told yourself ‘if I can defeat Whitebeard, it means I could have defeated him’” explained Deuce, proud of himself.

Ace paused for a moment, his eyes widening as Deuce’s words sunk in.

_Holy shit – When Deuce put it into words like that, it made sense!_

_Not that he was going to admit it!_

“ _Hey!”_ warned Ace, scowling “Listen mister-author-man, don’t go putting my supposed feelings into words”

Deuce laughed, nodding his head forward as his smile never left his lips. Even if he wore a mask on his face, Ace could always tell when his eyes crinkled with joy.

_“Am I wrong?”_ asked Deuce, raising a brow.

Ace huffed, blowing up his cheeks as he took another swing of his drink.

_He wasn’t admitting it! Because he knew if he did, that Deuce would put it in his novel!_

“ _No comments_ ”

There was a comfortable silence between them as they watched the party from afar before Ace spoke up again.

“Are you glad you joined?”

It was something he honestly wanted to ask every one of his previous crew members, but he also knew their tendency to tell Ace what he wants to hear. But he knew at least that even though Deuce might soften up the blow or sometimes be downright cruel, he wouldn’t lie to him.

Deuce blinked, looking at Ace slightly confused at the question.

_“Do I seem unhappy?”_

Ace shook his head.

“Naw, you fit right in with the other medics. I still can’t believe Pop’s Second is a doctor though. Who the hell looks at Marco and thinks that’s a doctor?” asked Ace, gesturing towards the currently half-phoenix man right now, trying to juggle mugs with his bird feet.

_Okay, considering how much Marco had already had to drink for tonight, it was really impressive that he was throwing mugs in the air, while flying, and catching them._

Deuce laughed softly, giving Ace’s arm a light shove.

“He’ll smack you if he hears you talking shit about him!” warned Deuce teasingly, a grin on his lips.

Deuce then shook his head slightly.

“I was happy on your ship and I’m happy here, Ace. But honestly, most of all, what makes me happiest is seeing _you_ on this ship” admitted Deuce.

Ace raised a brow, clearly confused at the statement just made by Deuce.

_“What?”_

“Basically, what makes me happy about being part of this crew, about being here – _is how happy it made you.”_ Started Deuce “You were…so angry, Ace. Angry at the world, angry at everything around you and everything in it. You plastered a smile on your face, were friendly with everyone you met, but in your eyes, you could tell how much rage fueled in you.”

Ace pursed his lips, rather annoyed at it being brought up.

“You can’t even deny it, Ace. Everywhere you went, you picked fights for no other reasons than to pick fights. You practically told Shanks that you think Roger is nothing but a corpse. You burned the Whitebeard’s flag on Fishman Island. You antagonized Isuka on purpose and then you basically told the World Government to shove their offer up their ass. You just started shit, to start shit. _And you know it.”_

Ace groaned, looking away a little embarrassed.

_It was pretty bad when someone listed it like that!_

“Okay, okay, so _maybe_ I was angry at the world” admitted Ace, sighing heavily.

Then he paused.

_When was the last time he felt that angry at the world?_

_He couldn’t even remember!_

_Was it when Pops told him that he didn’t care that he was Roger’s son?_

_Was it when he drank the saké_ _from Pop’s cup?_

_When did all that anger just…dissipate like that?_

“Since you’ve been here, like really here, as one of Pop’s sons-” started Deuce with a soft smile on his face “-You seem genuinely happy. As if this giant weight has been lifted on your shoulders and that, _that_ , is the best thing about joining this crew”

Ace couldn’t help but smile at the words.

_Deuce was right._

The Piece of Spadille was their home for a time – _but the Whitebeards are their family. Their true home._

And that was made clear enough for Ace tonight. With all the stories, the memories, the warm words, the hugs, the touches, the laughs, the food, the drinks and everyone and everything in between.

Ace smiled, lifting his mug towards the party.

“To them”

“To them!”

Ace paused, still in awe that it had already been a year. Wait…if he calculated that, plus the time he spent as Captain of the Spade pirates… _that means-!_

“Hey, if we already joined over a year ago, that means that soon enough Luffy’s going to come out here!” pointed out Ace, smiling brightly.

But before Deuce could say anything, a loud woosh passed right by them.

“Stop talking about your little brother or I’ll hit you!” warned Marco as he flew over them, swooping down and stealing both of the mugs Deuce and Ace were holding

“HEY!”

Marco merely stuck out of his tongue and flew away laughing.

Ace couldn’t stop the bright laugh that erupted from his lips.

_There was no place like home._

**Author's Note:**

> And there you have it! I hope you enjoyed the piece! 
> 
> Also just in case you're not aware, both volumes of the Ace novel are now available in French and English! To buy! So please support it that way they'll translate more of the One Piece light novels!


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